Mr. Ambassador, General Marshall, Mr. Chairman:
I welcome this opportunity to remind my countrymen that the maintenance of a perfect understanding between the people of Great Britain and the United States is of great importance to the peace of the world-it is of the greatest importance to the peace of the world.
This statue will stand as a memorial not only to a man but to a remarkable Anglo-American relationship that bore fruit in a great victory--a really great victory.
Now, if we can just win the peace in the same manner that we won that war, we can look forward to generations of happiness on this earth.
Field Marshal Sir John Dill died before I assumed the Office of President. I did not have the good fortune to know him personally. Our military leaders, however, made clear to me the tremendous service he rendered his own country and this country during the most trying days of the war.
He was a great Englishman, with a breadth of wisdom and a depth of understanding that transcended the boundaries of his own country.
The purity of his character, the directness of his purpose endeared him to all his American associates and inspired a real devotion to him and a complete trust in him. And that is the greatest thing that can come to any man, when he is completely trusted by his associates. We need more, these days, of that same high integrity--men who can command respect by their honesty and the sincerity of their purpose.
It is important to the peace of the world that peoples understand each other and have full faith in each other's sincerity.
That is all we ask. That is all we want. We have no ambitions, only world peace.
Such men as this make it possible. This is particularly true in regard to the people of the United Kingdom and the people of the United States.
I pay tribute here today to the memory of a great man, and to the services he rendered to both our countries in the common struggle for a free and decent world.
Note: The President spoke at 3:20 p.m. in Arlington Cemetery. In his opening words he referred to Sir Oliver Franks, British Ambassador to the United States, and General of the Army George C. Marshall, Secretary of Defense. Lady Dill and her daughter, and Maj. John Dill, Sir John's son, were present at the ceremony.
A White House release dated October 27, 1950, stated that Field Marshal Sir John Dill was the former Chief of the Imperial General Staff of the British Army and Head of the British Mission to the Combined Chiefs of Staff in Washington during World War II. He died at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington on November 4, 1944, as a direct result of his war efforts, and on the following morning President Roosevelt awarded him posthumously the Distinguished Service Medal.
The release further stated that on December 20, 1944, the President approved a joint resolution recognizing Arlington National Cemetery as the final resting place for Sir John and resolving that the outstanding service he rendered to the United Nations be recognized by the American people and the Congress (58 Stat. 835). Shortly thereafter a group of distinguished officers and civilians formed a committee in order to erect a memorial to Sir John.
The release also noted that the bronze equestrian statue, which arrived by ship from Belgium on October 30, was the work of the American sculptor, Herbert Haseltine.
Harry S Truman, Remarks in Arlington Cemetery at the Unveiling of the Statue of Sir John Dill. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/230404
